


Simple Transactions

by abp



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-31
Updated: 2013-01-31
Packaged: 2017-11-27 15:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/663508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abp/pseuds/abp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can meet people anywhere--even at the bank.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Simple Transactions

**Author's Note:**

> So I went to the bank and there was an attractive teller. Naturally I turned that inspiration into a mini fic.

“Next!”

Teddy let his checkbook slip through his fingers, the paychecks and deposit slip he’d carried inside of it scattering on the floor. “Go ahead of me,” he told the woman who bent down to help him.

“No, it’s okay—“

“No really,” he insisted. “Don’t want to hold up the line.”

She gave him a strange look but listened. Thankfully. He didn’t know what else he could do to make sure he got the right teller.

“I can take whoever’s next!”

A smile crossed his features and his stomach fluttered as he moved down to the correct spot. It was a crush. A _stupid_ crush. And Teddy knew he shouldn’t let himself encourage it. Starting tomorrow, he would never come back to this branch of the bank ever again. Nope. No more torturing himself. Not anymore.

“Oh, hi!” The dark-haired man grinned pleasantly at him. Billy, the nametag said, and Teddy knew very little other than that (he liked Lord of the Rings and thought Theodore was a cool name because it sounded fancy—that was it). “Good to see you again.”

Just like that, he knew he’d be back next week.

***

Teddy reached the front of the line, his heart sinking as he noticed one of the women tellers—Christine (he’d been coming here frequently enough that he’d learned all their names, alright?)—was free and Billy was absent completely. As much as he wasn’t going to admit that he practically made up excuses to go to the bank on his lunch break when he knew a certain dark-haired teller would be present, he wanted to at least _see_ the object of his huge and embarrassing crush.

Christine noticed him and smirked. “Hold on a sec,” she prompted, leaving the blond very confused in her wake. “Kaplan!” He managed to hear her call out loudly in the small room off to the side. “I’ll take over back here; your favorite banker is waiting.”

Billy emerged, cheeks slightly flushed as he moved down to take Christine’s post. “Hello,” he greeted with a sheepish smile. “Excuse Christine for being a rude harpy.”

Teddy laughed, though stopped abruptly when he noticed the older teller—Mary—pausing in her work to send a disapproving glare in their direction. “No, it’s fine. I mean, I usually have you. Why break habits?”

“Yeah,” Billy agreed with a relieved smile of his own. “So what were we talking about last time?” he asked, starting to process the checks (slower than Teddy knew he could—and wasn’t that just enough to make his heart skip beats). “The Avengers, right?”

“More like your _misguided_ thoughts about The Avengers,” Teddy scoffed playfully.

“No way. I will forever stand by my statement. The Scarlet Witch is the best Avenger of all time.”

“Yeah, only if you blatantly _ignore_ Captain Marvel.”

“Do you live around here?”

Teddy paused in surprise, sure his mouth was hanging open.

“I mean,” Billy had a slight flustered look again. “There’s a comic shop a few blocks away. They’re great. I wondered if you go there but I mean in New York, who knows where you actually live. For all I know you commute from Jersey and—“

“I don’t, actually,” Teddy interrupted Billy’s babbling and the other looked grateful. “I mean, I live in the city but not here. My office is near here. Hence the banking here thing,” he finished awkwardly, hoping his crush wasn’t as obvious as he thought it might be.

Billy nodded. “Me too. I mean, the commuting from across the city thing,” he explained. “But still, you should check out the store. I think you’d like it.”

“Do they pay you to drag in new customers?” he teased, trying to avert the nervousness inside him with joking. Was this Billy trying to ask him out? Or trying to be friends? Or was this purely a bank teller to customer sort of thing?

“They _should_ ,” Billy laughed lightly. “But, uh, I could show you it sometime. If you’d like. I mean, it’d be fun I think.”

The way Billy was fidgeting with the checks and avoiding looking up at Teddy sent waves of joy through the blond. He was nervous and if he was nervous that had to be a good sign. Most likely. Either Billy liked him or was trying to lure him into privacy to mug him.

“Yeah, I’d love to,” Teddy insisted, attempting to curb his enthusiasm as much as he could. It wasn’t much.

Billy perked up, a grin spread across his features. “Cool.” For a moment they both grinned stupidly at each other. “Oh, uh, here’s my number,” he added, scribbling the digits down on the back of a deposit slip. “Text me about it, okay?”

Teddy nodded. “Definitely.”

“Great,” he beamed back. “Oh and, uh, here’s your deposit slip. That’s your updated account total and yeah.”

“Thanks,” Teddy turned suddenly sheepish. “I’ll, uh, see you soon.”

“Yeah. Bye.”

As he left, Teddy definitely heard Christine loudly ask Billy, “Did you finally get the blond hunk’s number?”

He laughed to himself, clutching at the deposit slip and feeling particularly thankful for whatever nudge Christine had given Billy.

***

“Kaplan, your boyfriend’s here!”

Teddy felt a goofy grin spread across his face at the words. He didn’t mind, even as Emma rolled her eyes at what he knew she would call a ‘sickening expression.’

“Tee!” Billy had a similarly sickening smile on his face when he emerged from the side room. “You’re early. Still fifteen minutes ‘til closing.”

“Yeah, well,” Teddy shrugged. “I got sick of waiting.”

“Ugh, get a room,” Emma insisted, pulling a face.

But Billy merely laughed it off. “I’d kiss you right now if it wasn’t unprofessional,” he admitted to Teddy, leaning on the counter of his work station.

Teddy couldn’t strike the grin from his face. “You’ll have to make up for it later, I guess.”

“Buy me dinner first and we’ll discuss,” Billy teased.

“Comics then dinner,” Teddy amended. “It’s Wednesday.”

“But it’s my turn to pay for comics and your turn for dinner,” Billy pointed out. “Remind me again why we don’t just go halves for everything?”

Teddy shrugged. “It made sense at the time, I’m sure.”

“And now it’s too late to change?”

“Why break habits?”

Emma chose that moment to break into the conversation. “Just leave will you? I’m going to puke.”

“There’s still—“

“Don’t worry, we can handle the nonexistent masses without you, Billy,” she insisted. “So go be sickeningly in geek love somewhere else.”

Billy grinned brightly. “Thanks, Em.” His gaze turned back to Teddy. “Give me two seconds, Tee. Just need to grab my stuff.”

With that he ran off, leaving Teddy alone with Emma.

“Don’t give me that look, Theodore,” she narrowed his eyes at him. “I just can’t take Kaplan’s being in love for another second.”

“Love,” Teddy murmured in repetition, brain stuck on the word.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I’ve seen your bank account. He’s definitely not with you for the money.”

Teddy snorted, but didn’t have time for a retort as Billy emerged with his bag and cheerful demeanor.

“Alright, let’s head to the comic store and then for takeout and then my place? Or yours?” he asked, bubbling with energy.

“Mine,” Teddy decided. “It’s closer to that pizza place you like.”

“But what if I don’t want pizza?”  

“When don’t you want pizza?”

Billy chuckled. “Point.”

“Now hurry up,” he urged. “I’m starving.”

They shared another smile as they fell into their routine.


End file.
